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About us

About

The Center for Strategic Communication (CSC) is an initiative of the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication and a research unit of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at  Arizona State University. The CSC began in 2004 as the Consortium for Strategic Communication, an interdisciplinary group of scholars at ASU and partner institutions who are interested in applying knowledge of human communication to issues of countering ideological support for terrorism (CIST), diplomacy and public diplomacy.  Through its web site comops.org, the Consortium published an influential white paper series, the blog COMOPS Journal, and a book, all of which established its reputation among government and military audience as a leading think-tank on problems if terrorism and counter-terrorism.

In 2008 the Consortium secured a large grant funded by the Office of Naval Resarch to study extremists’ use of story and narrative to influence contested populations in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia. Early results of the project included a pragmatic theoretical framework for extremist narratives and a book outlining the same. In recognition of these accomplishments the Arizona Board of Regents converted the Consortium to an official university research center in November 2011.

Since that time CSC has become is a trans-disciplinary effort crossing the social sciences, humanities, and engineering that aims to be a leading center of thought and research on problems of public sector strategic communication. It incorporates the efforts of faculty in diverse fields, including human communication, religious studies, film and media studies, psychology, social psychology persuasion and rhetoric, biomedical engineering and computer science. The scope of CSC research has expanded to include study of state-based propaganda and disinformation, and messaging about public health and climate change.

The CSC is directed by Prof. Steve Corman. For a complete list of affiliated researchers, see the people page. For further information about CSC and its activities, please contact us.

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Support CSC

Thank you for considering making a donation to the CSC. Your tax deductable contribution will support our scholarship, education and public service activities such as COMOPS Monitor and COMOPS Journal.

Contributions are processed through the Arizona State University Foundation. Please click the button below to make your donation now.
For more information please contact us.

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